The Wits and Beaus of Society, Volume 2

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Worthington Company, 1890 - Great Britain

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Page 64 - The next time Mr. Selwyn calls, show him up. If I am alive, I shall be delighted to see him ; and if I am dead, he will be glad to see me.
Page 3 - I can't say I am sorry I was never quite a schoolboy : an expedition against bargemen, or a match at cricket, may be very pretty things to recollect ; but thank my stars, I can remember things that are very near as pretty.
Page 233 - Sir, it is not a talent; it is a vice; it is what others abstain from. It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers : it is a farce which exhibits individuals.
Page 89 - I allowed him all his own merit." He now added, "Sheridan cannot bear me. I bring his declamation to a point. I ask him a plain question, 'What do you mean to teach?' Besides, Sir, what influence can Mr. Sheridan have upon the language of this great country, by his narrow exertions? Sir, it is burning a farthing candle at Dover, to show light at Calais.
Page 224 - it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
Page 7 - Youthful passages of life are the chippings of Pitt's diamond, set into little heart-rings with mottoes ; the stone itself more worth, the filings more gentle and agreeable. — Alexander, at the head of the world, never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school. Little intrigues, little schemes, and policies engage their thoughts ; and, at the same time that they are laying the foundation for their middle age of life, the mimic republic they live in furnishes...
Page 100 - ... and if they were reserved for the proper stage, they would, no doubt, receive what the Honourable Gentleman's abilities always did receive, the plaudits of the audience ; and it would be his. fortune 'sui plausu gaudere theatri.' But this was not the proper scene for the exhibition of those elegancies.
Page 7 - No old maid's gown, though it had been tormented into all the fashions from King James to King George, ever underwent so many transformations as those poor plains have in my idea. At first I was contented with tending a visionary flock, and sighing some pastoral name to the echo of the cascade under the bridge.
Page 117 - If the thought (he would say) is slow to come, a glass of good wine encourages it, and, when it does come, a glass of good wine rewards it.

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